Sunday 26th February

Awoke to find us anchored off Kangaroo Island together with the Astor a Fremantle based cruise ship. Went ashore at Penneshaw, after breakfast, in a tender landing at a jetty next to the vehicle ferry from the mainland. The island is about 150k by 50k stretching west about 100k south of Adelaide & Penneshaw is about 50k east of Kingscote, the main town. We walked up to a small cruise ship market on the edge of the local oval & bought a few items for presents. One of the unusual things is the local honey which is from an Italian strain of bees only bred now on the island.

After an expensive & fairly ordinary coffee we climbed up to the ridge & passed the few shops & house of the settlement before walking along a lovely beach to see Flinders' & Baudin’s spring where they found fresh water for their ships. The weather was pleasantly sunny with a sharpish breeze good for walking around.

After another coffee we set off for the Information Centre just west of the main settlement & then returned to the jetty to return to the ship at about 2.30pm. It was unfortunate that we didn’t see more of the island but it looks as if it would be a great place to escape for a week or so.

The ship set off for Melbourne at about 7pm & tomorrow is a day at sea.